OBJECTIVE This pilot study aimed to verify the impact of the awareness tool for safe and responsible driving (OSCAR) on older adults' (1) interest, openness, and knowledge about the abilities and compensatory strategies required for safe driving; (2) awareness of changes that have occurred in their own driving abilities; and (3) actual utilization of compensatory strategies. METHODS A preexpe...

A set of cytological studies performed in the utricle and saccule of Astronotus ocellatus (Teleostei, Percomorphi, Cichlidae) identified two basic types of hair cells and others with some intermediate characteristics. This paper reports on applying the same techniques to the saccule of Carassius auratus (Teleostei, Otophysi, Cyprinidae) and demonstrates similar types of hair cells to those foun...

This case report describes the radiographic, ultrasonographic and computed tomographic (CT) examination of an abdominal swelling in a Red Oscar (Astronotus ocellatus Cuvier, 1829). While radiography only demonstrated caudoventral compression of the swimbladder, ultrasonography found a huge tumor-like parenchyma in the caudal abdomen. CT studies detected a possible connection between the tumor a...

Observation of the naturally-occurring accommodative response of a highly visual teleost species provides the opportunity to study its stimulus-response accuracy. A video recording system, linked to a computer digitizing program, was used to measure accommodative changes in lens position in the oscar, Astronotus ocellatus, in response to known food stimuli. The largest lens deviations occurred ...

The neotropical cichlid genus Astronotus currently comprises two valid species: A. ocellatus Agassiz, 1831 and A. crassipinnis Heckel, 1840. The diagnosis is based on color pattern and meristics counts. However, body color pattern is highly variable between regions and the meristic counts show a considerable overlap between populations differing in color patterning. They do not represent true s...

Adaptation or acclimation to hypoxia occurs via the modulation of physiologically relevant genes, such as erythropoietin, transferrin, vascular endothelial growth factor, phosphofructokinase and lactate dehydrogenase A. In the present study, we have cloned, sequenced and examined the modulation of the LDH-A gene after an Amazonian fish species, Astronotus crassipinis (the Oscar), was exposed to...